UP! - North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Happy 5 th birthday SDF
...and thanks a million!
Pupils field-walking for ancient artefacts. Picture: Peter Woodman
THAT’S £1 million in support for local
North Wessex Downs projects over the last
five years provided through the stimulus of
the AONB’s Sustainable Development
Fund (SDF).
Since the SDF grant scheme started in
2005 almost £350,000 has been
distributed to 85 projects in the AONB.
The projects have attracted matchfunding
of cash, materials, services and
people’s time worth more than £725,000,
enabling SDF co-ordinator Oliver Cripps
and colleagues to raise a toast on
achieving its first million (pictured above):
“We provide SDF grants up to £10,000,
and the diversity of the projects proposed
by applicants never ceases to amaze me.
This year alone we’ve been able to
support schemes involving hydro-electric
power, Henry II’s hunting lodge, a
mobile observatory, chalk hill figures,
stonecraft skills, community planning,
countryside walks, a food festival and
conservation work for bats, owls,
bumblebees and trout.”
“Not only is that diversity stunning but
all these SDF projects help to advance the
aims of our AONB Management Plan.
That’s a real win-win result for local
communities today and the future of the
North Wessex Downs AONB.”
FRESH FUNDING NOW AVAILABLE
SDF is administered by the North Wessex
Downs AONB and funded by DEFRA
through Natural England. Applications for
innovative, small-scale projects are
welcome from community and village
groups, heritage and wildlife bodies,
businesses and local authorities.
Contact: Oliver Cripps 01488 680457.
During the past year SDF granted
£57,753 to 17 projects. They
generated £136,687 matchfunding
in cash and in kind.
DISCOVERING THE PAST . . .
■ Kingsclere Heritage Association, with
the University of Southampton, has carried
out historic landscape surveys on the
Hampshire Downs, including a Bronze Age
round barrow, a Romano-British
settlement, and a 12th century hall built
for Plantagenet kings. Excavation open
days enabled school group and wider
public involvement (main picture).
4 | UP! On The North Wessex Downs